by Patrick Seaton

   This article was first published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Small business owners certainly understand the need to introduce long-term improvement initiatives into their organization.  The pay-off that some companies are experiencing is astounding and certainly helps pave their path into the future with more profits, more flexibility, and more stability. 

Unfortunately, not every company has found the same success.  While companies strive to be lean and mean through improvement initiatives, the changes can be overwhelming for the small company that doesn’t have somebody on staff who can fill the crucial role of “Change Champion.”  This champion role is either divided among several people or is just one of many hats a single person wears.  The bottom line – the initiative does not progress as hoped and lacks the momentum needed to really change the company’s culture and processes into those of a world class company.  The end result?   Many companies give up somewhere in the middle of the journey with lots of money invested and little to show for the investment.  At the same time, the employees have chalked up the improvement initiative as another “program of the month”

If this resembles your situation, there is a way to bring long-term improvement initiatives back into your organization.  You need to focus on the three Ps – the People, the Processes, and your Planning / Preparation routines.  This month we will focus on People.

Focusing on the People is a great way to show your employees that you care about them.  A periodic review of what your employees do in their jobs at the task level (called Task Management) will highlight the following:
• How many “hats” they are wearing and what kinds of “hats,”
• If the workload is balanced across the staff,
• Which tasks employees are completing without fail,
• Which tasks they aren’t able to complete, and
• If it makes sense to move any tasks to others in the company.

The above list is only a few of the outcomes that can be discovered during a short, 3 to 4 hour task management session whereby all the department employees or team members participate in a facilitated group activity.  A very important message that you will give your staff is “I care about what you do, how you feel about your job, and how you think things could be improved.”  The reality is that we don’t spend enough time talking to our employees to know the nitty-gritty details of how they really feel about their jobs.  Task Management is the perfect way to open that dialog and find the pain points.  By focusing on the people and their issues through task management, emotional situations were diffused and employees felt much better about their jobs and their supervisors.

Task management sessions are a tremendous way for companies to open communication lines between employees.  As one session participant once told me – “We talk everyday, but we are so busy with daily work that we never really have time to discuss our real issues.  When we are in a [task management] session, we really talk and resolve our issues.”

Task management sessions should be run every six months with the same group of people so ensure that workloads are balanced.  The sessions also make sure employees understand what tasks need to be considered priority in order to meet the department and organizational goals.  A wonderful book titled The Paradox Principles sums it up so nicely – “Create a great organization one employee at a time.”  Task management drills down to the issues that matter most to employees.  By addressing these issues, employees are much more willing to support the organization’s long-term improvement initiatives.

Benefits
1. Lower costs by balancing workloads, minimizing OT, and eliminating duplicated or unnecessary tasks
2. Increase productivity by defining clear roles and responsibilities, realigning tasks to employees with better skills or more interest for the tasks, and immediately looking at how changes impact the employees’ at the task level
3. Improve morale by opening communication lines, minimizing stress and frustration for those who handle more tasks than others, and validating employees’ contributions to the organization’s goals
4. Develop management by giving them a vehicle for “getting the right people on the bus and in the right seat” as well as giving them the opportunity to dig deep with their staff to learn the issues that mean the most to them

Best Practices
1. Conduct a task management session in each department every 6 to 9 months
2. Make sure that the department supervisor or manager participates in the session
3. Use a facilitator from outside the department (or organization) to bring fresh perspectives and unbiased suggestions to the group

Patrick Seaton
Innovative Management Tools LLC
www.innovmgmt.com
pdseaton@innovmgmt.com
715-340-9606